Stafford, frontman Pat Monahan and drummer Scott Underwood have started writing songs for a new album, the follow-up to 2012’s “California 37.”

“A lot of songwriting is being done and I think most of the album is ready to go record. I think the plan is to just keep writing through the holiday and then start recording in January,” Stafford told CBSNews.com.

Train hopes to release its seventh studio effort by summer 2014. Although several songs are already near completion, the music will definitely be reworked in the coming months.

When it comes to writing, Stafford says, the music or a melody usually comes first. That’s been the case with most of Train’s songs. One of the exceptions was with the Grammy-winning “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me).” That track started with Monahan coming up with the lyric “Now that she’s back in the atmosphere.” Everything else followed that one line.

The songwriting process for Train’s next release is certainly a very fluid process. Songs are written, then demoed. “Then we go in the studio and kind of tear them apart and put them together again. And that’s when it really starts to sound like Train,” Stafford said.

Although it’s too early to get a sense of what shape the new album will take, Stafford says it will likely be a more “mature” album that the last set, which feature the hit “Drive By.”

“Whatever we do it’s going to sound like Train because Pat’s just got that distinctive voice,” said Stafford. “It’s not like we’re going to go out in left field and do a country album or anything like that. We’re still kind of a pop-rock band but we’ve also prided ourselves on being able to play many different styles. If you listen to ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ next to ‘Drops of Jupiter’ or ‘Meet Virginia,’ they’re all very different from each other.”